1. Canción de las simples cosas
2. Naranjo en flor
3. Los mareados
4. Milonga de Martín Fierro
5. Déjame que me vaya
6. Romance de la luna Tucumana
7. Siempre París
8. Por una cabeza
9. Balderrama
10. Nieblas del riachuelo
11. Canción para un niño en la calle
When I finished Cigala&Tango, it saddened me to have not included songs like Naranjo en flor, Los Mareados, etc. Some essential tango. I wanted more.
At the same time, during my travels to Argentina, I delved into the repertoire of Mercedes Sosa, and I became a big fan of her work. Through her, I encountered Balderrama and I discovered “la chacarera: Déjame que me vaya, Canción de las simples cosas, and Romance de la luna Tucumana, by Atahualpa Yupanqui and Pedro Aznar. Andrés Calamaro introduced me to Martín Fierro and “la milonga”.
With this repertoire in mind, a meeting put together by my friend Andres took place, and he invited me to his concert in Mexico City in 2010. There, I met Diego Garcia, El Twanguero, one of his guitarists. We spent a short time together, but I let him know my intentions of recording Naranjo en flor. A year later, he sent me the song arrangement that you can hear in this album. He had previously recorded it and invited me to sing in his album El Twanguero.
His repertoire fascinated me, but I didn’t want to record another Cigala&Tango, and in Diego Garcia and his electric, twangy guitar, I found exactly what I was looking for—a different sound to pursue an Argentine style for a different record. The idea had all the season I was looking for—adventure and the musical challenge were satisfied. And adding an electric guitar wasn’t easy to do!
Fortunately, Diego Garcia, who during this time was living in Buenos Aires studying tango, happened to be traveling through Madrid (Summer of 2012), so I invited him to my house and with an open mind and little direction, we began improvising. Everything flowed and the new pieces materialized quickly.
Believing that the new material was worthy of being listened to outside of the studio, the universe conspired in our favor and brought us Changuito, the live legend of percussion. I had previously recorded Dos lagrimas as well as tour with him, and although he lives in Havana, destiny brought him to Madrid right when we needed him.
We called in Yelsy Heredia, my bassist of many years, and Isidro Suarez, who, together with Changuito, formed the rhythmic heart of the album. It was a complete fusion: my soft spot for Cuban and Argentine music, transforming itself into something new, with the addition of the southern twang brought to us by Diego Garcia’s Gibson 295.
The whole summer, we enjoyed what destiny brought us in Madrid. Having no expectations, the music came to us as we were placed in the same place to collaborate.
When autumn came, we began an American tour through Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, and the United States, the last concerts in the continent of Cigala&Tango.
I always like to test out my musical experiments in new places, exactly where I could receive the harshest criticism, because I didn’t want to release material that was unworthy of being listened to by people who invented the music. With this in mind, I invited El Twanguero Diego Garcia to the twelve concerts we had in Argentina. That way, we could perform five of the new styles and see what happened…
We really loved the feeling of exceeding expectations, and this is what the press had to say:
La Nacion, September 25th, 2012
“And from the first sample for the people of Buenos Aires, another recent discovery when Diego Garcia is invited to play Milonga verses by Martin Fierro. Garcia’s slide guitar and the thick milonga groove form a perfect partnership with El Cigala’s voice. You can discern it. The tandem of Cigala and Garcia, flamenco and milonga, could be a new resounding chapter, like what was begun with Bebo Valdes in Lagrimas negras.”
La Capital, September 24th, 2012
“The packed theatre created an excellent atmosphere and the concert began with “Garganta con arena” in a version that spotlighted guitarist Diego Garcia, heavy with vibrato, full of new details ushered in by the singer.”
“With a crowd won over by his charm, the Madrilenian delivered verses from Martin Fierro with milonga surera, raising the stakes in his experimentation with flamenco, tango rhythms, el bolero, and, in this case, combined with a typical Argentine poem.”
Dia a Dia, October 3rd, 2012
“In El Malecon in Havana, in Caminito in La Boca, in a humid sunset in New Orleans, and in the multiethnic Madrid neighborhood of Lavapies: Diego “El Cigala”’s musical quality can be felt in all these venues, erasing borders with elegance and charm.”
“This genius of Flamenco masters the sound and, even more, turns it into gold.”
“But it gets even more intense with the addition of Spanish violist Diego Garcia, with his 1950s Blues and rock sounds.”
“Here he gave us some insight of what is to come with a riveting performance of a passage from Martin Fierro.”
Los Andes, October 5th, 2012
“He was certainly the lead role. Despite this, more than once, he joined the audience in cheering for guitarist Diego Garcia Gallardo, a guest with superhuman abilities at guitar. Every musician was well-received, but this one never ceased to amaze each time he took over the stage.”
Andino, October 6th, 2012
“The concert hit another high point when guitarist Diego Garcia (playing with Calamaro) delivered a jaw-dropping performance, playing a distinct sound between Hawaiian and North American folk on his guitar. Among other themes of the night performed alongside El Cigala, the milonga verses by Martin Fierro were the gem of the entire evening.”
I held two concerts in the Gran Rex in Buenos Aires, also where I recorded Cigala&Tango; the first night, my guest was Adriana Varela, and Diego Torres was my guest the second. Diego Torres and I sang Esa maldita luna. He is a musical great, and I appreciated his company and the chanc for us to share a stage.
Gata Varela, Adriana, exudes tango, she is pure fire, a force of nature!
The spiritual ancestor of Polaco Goyeneche is a jack of all trades: a master of tango, life, and work if I’ve ever seen one. I admitted to her that I was a big fan of the tango piece Por una cabeza by Gardel and Lepera, but that I untimately decided not to record it because parts didn’t seem to fit right, and she told me she had never sang it for exactly opposite reasons.”
It was obvious we needed to record it together. We did just that, and here you have our version of Por una cabeza, track number 8. It was a huge honor for me to rely on Adriana’s voice, master of her art, and all I can say is that if you’ve never heard it, look for the tango La gata Varela, written in her honor by Cacho Castaña, to learn more about her.
I finished Romance de la luna Tucumana in 2012, after mixing and tying up loose ends. In the beginning of 2013, I was able to reunite with Diego Garcia, who was still living in Buenos Aires but happened to be in Madrid for a few days, and we went over the mix of the guitarists and organized employment with the band. Those days, the only sounds in my house were not any of my music, but instead my son Rafael singing or putting on Cancion para un niño en la calle, that Mercedes Sosa and Rene Perez of Calle 13 recorded for their album Cantora.
Armando Tejada’s verses had us mesmerized, and we added them at the last minute. After that came the idea: the song was recorded in the same harmony as the version in Cantora, would it be possible to get permission to use Mercedes’s voice in the recordings?
So, we contacted Fabian, Elmatus, Mercedes’s son, who was nothing but helpful. We sent him my version of the song, he facilitated all the necessary steps, and by March we had the final version of the track, Mercedes’s voice included. Our final gift was hearing her voice on the track, which was beyond amazing!
Thank you, Mercedes, gran madre de América!
